Schools
Only One Middle School for Easley
The former Easley High School site will be the location of the only middle school in Easley.
That school will be known as Gettys Middle School and will serve a population of nearly 1,400 students.
Board members voted to continue with plans to convert the former high school site at Thursday night’s board meeting.
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Though many in Easley had called on the board to continue with an earlier announced plan to convert the former high school into a middle school, which would have been known as J.C. Brice Middle School, as well as renovate the current Gettys Middle School site, giving Easley two middle schools, those calls did not find a receptive audience among board members.
“I’m here to ask you to return to the plan of allowing two schools in the Easley area,” David Cantrell said. “These could and would be two schools that are approximately equal to each other but also to the other schools in Pickens County and would give all Pickens County children an equal and equitable experience. You can do this without disregarding the financial realities. Retrofitting just one school, which was planned for 750 students, to properly accommodate 1,400 students is not financially responsible.”
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Former board member Kevin Kay said the district had the funds available to go forward with the two school plan.
“The citizens of Easley are asking you to do what’s educationally best for the students,” he said. “Not anything fancy, not anything beyond reason, not anything that’s not equal to what the others in the district have received, but what’s educationally best for the students.”
The board was presented with several options by Superintendent Dr. Kelly Pew.
Those options included:
Two middle schools built at full scope, with Brice Middle School budgeted at around $17.7 million and Gettys Middle School budgeted at $17.4 million.
That plan would have required $10 million more than the district currently has in its building program, necessitating the use of all $9 million in building program interest, money that previously been promised back to the taxpayers in the form of debt repayment, as well as $1 million from other sources of funding, Pew said.
Another option would have seen two middle schools as well, with Gettys being reduced in scope for a total of $32 million for the two schools.
Gettys would have housed about 500 students under than plan, Pew said.
That option could have seen Gettys Middle School housing just sixth graders.
Under that option, the district would have drawn upon more than $4 million in building program interest.
Another option would have seen Gettys opened back up and needed maintenance undertaken.
Board chair Judy Edwards made a motion calling for two middle schools, using the amount of $12.9 million originally budgeted for the current Gettys Middle School to complete renovations on that school.
But Trustee Ben Trotter made a substitute motion to continue with one middle school.
That plans calls for the creation of another classroom wing, containing 20 classrooms that will house sixth graders, at the former high school site, as well other items called for in that plan.
Trotter said adding a second middle school would add $700,000 in operating costs to the district’s budget annually.
“It’s my belief at this time that we cannot sustain the rate that we’re going now,” he said. “There’s been discussion of shutting down three elementary schools because we cannot keep doing this.”
Trustee Jim Shelton said the plan includes the new wing, a full renovation of the auditorium, a complete rework of the HVAC system in the ’96 building, the replacement of the windows in the 1939 building and the replacement of the roof in all the facility except for the ’96 building.
Pew said the cost of converting the old high school to become Gettys Middle School at the Pendleton Street location is about $24.3 million.
Trustee Alex Saitta said Brice Middle School is “far and away the best middle school we have.”
“It has a campus-like feel, it has a historical building,” Saitta said. “It’s got 8-foot windows, 10-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, it’s got a football stadium.”
He said other middle schools were just refurbished, not gutted and built anew like Brice Middle School.
“Everything’s new,” Saitta said. “A lot of people talk about fairness. It’s beyond fair.”
The board voted to continue with both phases of the conversion of the former high school site.
Edwards, Trotter, Shelton and Trustee Jimmy Gillespie voted for the one middle school plan, with Saitta opposing and Trustee Dr. Herb Cooper abstaining.
All Easley middle schoolers will attend Gettys Middle School at its location at the former high school site in the fall.
“There will be 10 portables,” Pew said.
She said construction at Gettys’ new location should be completed before school begins in the fall of 2014.
The middle school will have a student teacher ratio of 21.5 to 1, just like all other district schools.
“We have had one middle school in Easley for many years, so it’s not as though we’re going from two to one,” Pew said. “It’s going to be the same size that it has been. Clearly, the concerns have been growth in the Easley area, because we will not have a lot of room for growth. If you ask me as an educator, always a smaller learning environment is better but we also wanted to make sure that we didn’t end up with one school that parents wanted their children to go to and one school that was just going to re-open the way it had been.”
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